One Last Time
by Flywheel Shyster and Flywheel
Summary: In which this author reflects over his history with the site, fandom, and why he is now hanging up the jawbreakers. Thanks for everything; peace, people.


The sun rested on the horizon, inkling on the edge between day and night like it was dangling its legs in tomorrow's waters. Shades of a deep red, a fiery orange and shining gold stretched out over the sky, staining the landscape with beautiful colors out of this world. The tree tops swayed back and forth slowly, as if the wind was whispering a catchy melody, small ripples formed on the small body of water below when the breeze gently grazed its surface and the mountains off in the distance that may have normally seemed to act as a wall to the small community now seemed to point out paths in the rock where one could climb on to new adventures. Peach Creek had reached the end of yet another day. All was at peace.

Except for the figure moving up the cliff, huffing and swearing loudly every other second as he tried to gain traction against the rocky surface. Just as he for the 14th time contemplated to just give up and let gravity drag him back down in a tumble he didn't picture to be half as exhausting as his ascent, he reached the top and was instantly struck with a sense of surprise.

The first thing that surprised him was that he had always remembered the cliff to be much higher. When he and his friends had climbed it all those years ago to keep a lookout for a good spot on the beach down below, it had felt like stepping up Everest. Or so he had been told; his trustworthy friend Ed had carried him up there that time.

The second thing was just how stunning the scenery was. The sun that rested on the horizon, looking very much like a fat man preparing to sink himself down into a hot tub. Red, orange and gold that draped over the land like a hangover you can actually be content with; the kind where you're just kinda sluggish and can curl up on the couch with a show you're trying to catch up with. The dancing tree tops stuck in the 70s', the water shivering below and the mountains off in the distance getting a tan. Imagine, that all it took to see this stunning beauty was a little extra height.

"Sorry, but that might be _the_ worst parables I've ever seen."

The third thing was the casually dressed man who stood at the very edge of the cliff with his back turned. This was also the first thing that confused Eddy McGee who scrambled up to catch his breath on the small plateau.

"Who are you?" Eddy racked his brain for any trace of a memory in which this man had taken a part of but failed.

The man sighed drearily and let his hands cross behind his back. "Not who you were expecting."

"That's for sure." The short Ed stood up straight and exhaled slowly, fully recuperated from his climb. He began to inch closer to the man and edge, a hint of caution in his steps. "Note said an old friend wanted to meet me."

"Yet we have never met like this." The answer was short and brusque as if it displeased the man.

"Nah, I think I would've remembered that." Eddy stopped short of a fall straight down into the water and focused his gaze on the scenery around them, a bit too worried to actually face his mysterious companion who stood a good foot taller.

"Some do. We were meant to." The man sighed and threw his head back. "Let me start at the beginning."

* * *

 _The sun was burning into Eddy's eyes. It was a hot day. It was weird since it was the end of October. His best friends Ed and Double-D were walking on each side of him. He was kind of lucky since they were taller than him and casted a shadow over the short, unpronounced leader of the trio. They were on their way to Jimmy's Halloween party. Ed had been really hyped up all week, Double-D was wondering over the perfect costume and Eddy was thinking how he would best make an impression on Nazz. As they now walked down the street, they gave an odd impression. Ed was wearing his regular clothes under his Frankenstein costume. Double-D wore a phantom costume (white face, a coat and a hat). This was one of the few times he didn't were his trademark ski hat. Eddy was Dracula. He hoped that his fake medallion would impress everyone at the party._

* * *

"What was that?" Eddy glanced around, a little curious about the sudden interruption in everyday life by a long paragraph of text.

"December, 2008, couple of days before the end of the year I decided to sit down and write a silly little crossover between Ed, Edd n Eddy and Digimon." The man laughed shortly to himself. " **'** _Ed, Edd n Eddy feat Digimon_ '; always thought it was inspired title."

"'Ed, Edd n'- Hang on, hang on." The shorter of the two waved his hands around and faced the man head on first time. Whatever sentence Eddy had wanted to get out stocked up in his throat and was instead replaced by a series of splutters that could have been interpreted as either "Help, I seem to have a rather big piece of mozzarella cheese stuck in my trachea; could you be a dear and just give my back a hearty smack?" or "Fucking hell, where have I seen you before?". In this case, the correct interpretation would be the second one.

The man smiled at the outburst of noises from Eddy and continued on nonetheless. "The16thFriendofEdd. It didn't last long, I'm afraid; thought it too generic. So…" His smile grew wider as he stuck his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet around. "I did what I've done best here. I took inspiration from someone else's work and thus I became-"

"Flywhel, Shyster and Flywheel." Eddy blurted out. It was then it struck him; all those author's notes years and years ago, the banter back and forth, pretending to argue over storylines for the sake of comedy. But… Could it really be him? "What the hell happened to you?"

"Many a things." Flywheel shrugged lazily. "Too many to list. A lot of things lately."

"Yeah, but…" The Peach Creek native said and scratched the back of his head. All those years ago, Flywheel had been nothing more than another kid with a limited control over a language he had never claimed as his first. Now, he seemed to exude it in a manner as natural as breathing. "2008? Has it really been-"

"Almost eight years." Flywheel filled in. "Longer than most but by far not the oldest."

"Shit, man." Eddy slumped down and thought about it. Eight years; a long time for a person to grow. Maybe it all wasn't as surprising as he had once thought.

"Quite." The writer clenched his teeth. "I've never regretted this. The whole fanfiction thing."

"It's a bit weird though, you gotta admit." Eddy retorted.

"I always saw it as good practice, you know?" Flywheel mused. Hands still in his pockets, he began to balance on the balls of his feet, something not usually done on a high cliff in a forest clearing. "I mean, I only knew English in the conventional sense back then. Ask for the post office, talk about the weather, discuss quantum physics and its place in our society as a whole; those sorts of things. But now… I know the internet essentially gives everyone with a computer and spare time a crash course in English but the work I've put into my stories on this site right here… I would almost say I know it better than my native tongue as I certainly prefer it."

"Well… Congrats then." Eddy offered before shrugging. "Still a bit weird."

"Yes, but think about it. Without the need to develop my own characters, I could focus all my time on the content. Using already established characters granted me an audience who would leave frequent feedback. Using this particular site gave me a community full of helpful people and to whom I could be an asset."

"Yeah, heard about the community from Double-D…" Eddy winced. Flywheel swatted it away.

"Oh, I know; it wasn't always like that. I'm not here to talk about that though, already covered that subject in two separate stories."

"Right, something about nuts?"

"' _Rusty Worn Nut_ ' and ' _KevEdd: The Beginning of the End_ '. Most fun I've had writing fanfiction in years."

"Yeah?" Eddy leaned back on his hands and let his legs hang over the edge. "Why haven't you left then if it's been such a pain in the ass?"

"Hope." Flywheel answered instantly. "Always hoped that I would come back and finish up the stories, that I wouldn't be another one of those writers who just up and leaves everything they've started."

"You look pretty ready to quit right now to me."

"Maybe so." The breeze made itself reminded. "Maybe so."

"So what changed? This young kid, learning the language, head full of ideas, writing as often as he can in one sitting; what happened?"

"Time happened. Life happened. The community changed. I changed." Flywheel started to walk in small circles, carefully placing each foot in front of the other. "I just don't think this is much fun anymore. I used to, fuck; this was like the one thing in my life I was proud of at one time. Never told that many people about it but shit like ' _Choices_ ' and ' _Detest_ '? I was convinced that would be my magnum opus right there."

"Then?"

"Then one day, I didn't. I decided to take a break, almost all of 2013. Called it my retirement but knew deep down that I wanted to come back. I wanted to come back and finish everything."

"Why didn't you?"

"Well, I came back, obviously, having rewritten ' _Choices_ ' and written one of the best one-shots I've ever done: ' _Always_ '. It really felt like I could do it. Except the same community I came back to wasn't the same one I had left."

"That KevEdd thing?" Eddy instantly burst out into laughter at his own question. "Shit, 'KevEdd' will always be my favorite word."

"KevEdd indeed." Flywheel ignored the laughter and went on. "It exploded a couple of months after I left and I didn't really notice the effect it was having until fellow writers dropped off from the site left and right. Some for personal reasons, but most because they couldn't take what the EEnE section of the site had become."

"Geez, you're sounding a bit dinosaur there, Gramps." Eddy rolled his eyes at the tint of melodrama the conversation was developing.

"Maybe we were." Flywheel shook his head and sighed. "A lot of people sigh in my stories…"

"What?"

"Nothing. Either way, as time went on, I started to feel the desire to duck out of the game again except this time, I knew it was sink or swim; leave an unfinished legacy or go out with a fucking punch in the face of the doubters and a catalogue of riveting tales. So that sort of kept me around for a bit longer, but also made me a lot more bitter; it was like my completionist, perfectionist nature was keeping me hostage in the house of fanfiction."

"And now?"

"Now?" Flywheel threw a glance over the landscape. "Now, I don't think I care. Maybe this is the last thing I ever post here, maybe not. But if it is, I just wanted to leave my notice."

"Bummer, dude." Eddy said honestly and Flywheel smiled thankfully in response. The first instinct when the idea for this meeting had been born was to have it with Double-D, as the brainy Ed had always been more in tune on a personal and linguistic level, but there was something in the bluntness of Eddy McGee that had made the author reconsider the candidate for his last outing. Eddy had always been an underutilized character in his opinion.

"Well, c'est la vie." Flywheel finally gave in and took a seat, crossing his legs. "There's just no joy left here for me. I get no joy from writing this; reading it took a hike years ago. I sit down; I try to produce something for the Flywheel moniker? Nothing. This, this I can do because I know that this might be _it._ But to sit down and focus on rewriting the clusterfuck that is ' _Choices_ '? ' _Detest_ '? That's 100,000 words that need revising and a complete plot rearranging from the bottom up; I might as well write a book of my own from the ground up."

"Yeah, that'd bring anyone down."

"' _Digimon Eds_ ', ' _SpeakEdBoxxx_ ', ' _Yellow Submarine_ '; all were intended to be these great works of art that spanned over 50 or so chapters. Why? Because I wanted it to. But now? I just-"

"Aight, aight, I get it; it's over, man." Eddy snapped, an increasing irritation building over the nonstop complaining. "Not the same community, can live with leaving, you've written shit you can't finish; I get it."

"Yeah… But maybe I don't get it." A hard silence fell over the two as they stared out at nothing in particular. The sun had sunk even further and blue started to sneak into the colorful fire that blazed across the sky.

Eddy piped up. "What're you proud of then?"

"What?"

"What're you proud of then? It can't all have been shit."

"No, not really. Say what you want about the subject matter, but I loved writing ' _Rusty Worn Nut_ ', especially the more absurd chapters; it really felt like the excitement I had over ' _Yellow Submarine_ ' all over again." A small smile played over the writer's lips. "' _Choices_ ', for the fucking mess it is, had ambition."

"What else?" Eddy coaxed, wanting to get the mood back on a more positive track.

' _I Miss You_ ', ' _Always_ ', ' _Float Away_ ', ' _Mechanics of a Friendship_ ', ' _Movie Night at Ed's_ '; all these lovely little slice-of-life things that I never thought would be me in a million years, used to hate writing them. ' _SpeakEdBoxx/The Ed Below_ ' never got the love it deserved, from me or anyone else for that matter." He let out a laugh and clapped his hands together. "' _Writer's Block_ ' is hands down one of the most diverse and best things ever."

"What's the best then?"

"Like I said, I used to think it was ' _Choices_ ', if just for the length. But now, it's most definitely ' _High School Never Ends_ '. First multi-chapter story I ever finished so there's also that."

"Huh." Eddy nodded. "Do I get Nazz in that one?"

"Nah, Lee."

"Aww, man!" Eddy groaned loudly. "Why the fuck do I either end up with her or Double-D in your shit?!"

"I'd still put you with Lee in a heartbeat; that thing with Double-D was a weird period though."

"Lot of angst there."

"Amen." Another silence, more comfortable this time.

"So, what you gonna do now?" Eddy asked.

"Write. Other things, that is; really psyched for it."

"Good, glad for you, man." Silence.

"You wanna know something weird?"

"What?"

"I…" A laugh escaped the author. "I haven't gone by Flywheel in a long time."

"The hell are you talking about?" Eddy glanced sideways at his companion as if to assess the latter's mental state.

"I mean, the name's still _**FLYWHEEL, SHYSTER AND FLYWHEEL**_ but I've started signing stuff with 'John' or 'John Freeman', not to mention the author avataring I did in my KevEdd stories as 'Ish'."

"Ah, you mean it like that."

"Yeah." John smiled yet again and jumped up abruptly. Eddy twitched a little at the sudden action and looked up at the other man befuddled.

"You going already?"

"Look, anybody who made it all the way here either knows me, knows of me or stumbled upon this sentence by chance while scrolling through it, mumbling that I'm full of myself." John stretched out and reached over to try to touch his toes. "Those who know me, all the people I've spoken to in PMs over the years? Thank you, for everything. Jamie, though the chance of you reading this is slim, and Barth; special peace and thanks to you, my friends. Those who know of me, read my stuff and reviewed it accordingly? Thank you; for the support, for the time you've taken to read my work. Each and every one of you always meant the world to me; both readers and reviewers."

"Geez, you gonna cry?" Eddy tried to joke but failed, feeling a little sad over the situation himself.

"Hadn't planned on it." John stood up straight and thought for a moment. "Then again, hadn't planned to say goodbye either."

"Well, c'est la vie." Eddy raised himself to his feet and nodded, echoing John's earlier use of the phrase.

"Certainly." John stretched out his hand and offered a comforting smile. "Thank you, Eddy; to you and the Eds. Thank you for everything."

Eddy took a hold of it and shook it. "Thanks yourself for keeping the legacy alive and all."

"I just did my part." John nodded and backed away a few steps. "This feels a bit rushed, I'll admit, but I just want to get it over with. On the off chance I don't return."

"Sockhead would probably say you're welcome back anytime." Eddy said.

"Maybe I'll consider it." John looked away at nothing in particular. "I've had a blast. Say hello to the guys from me."

"Hey." John looked back just in time to see Eddy throw his arms around the taller man. Confusion melted away as he returned the hug and sighed softly. "You know, from Ed."

"Ah, yeah, of course." The author stifled a laugh as the short Ed backed up with a flushed face. With one last sigh, mostly because he had apparently never learned to do anything else, he took one last look around. The forests where memories of childhood games lied hidden, the streets that had been pummeled with enthusiastic steps of children and teenagers and the houses with their warm interiors that would always be there to invite mayhem, chaos but most of all love. So many adventures, so many friends, so many stories that had been born there, had yet to be born. A nexus of infinite possibilities. Turning back to Eddy, Flyhweel, Ish and John all grinned widely as one. "I'll never forget one line of this. I will never forget when Flywheel was me."

With a swift motion, John tore off his hoodie and let it float away in the wind. Wings on his back burst forth and stretched out, crafted out of 300,000 words over the span of eight years. They fluttered tryingly and having flapped them once, John gave Eddy a last wink before falling backwards over the edge of the cliff.

"Don't be a stranger, you uninspired hack!" With an amused shake of his head, Eddy watched as the author made off into the sunset with decisive beats of his wings. He flipped over mid-air and waved happily.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" Those last words still echoed over Peach Creek some time later when Eddy had made his way over to Ed's house to tell his two best friends about the meeting he had had. Though they were indeed sad to hear that John had left, Ed visibly more so, they spent the rest of the night recounting memories, canon and non-canon, and decided in the end that their partnership with the author/law firm Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel had indeed been beneficial, after which an hour long argument began about how many diseases one would catch sleeping on Ed's unclean floor, a debate Double-D started and Eddy stormed out on in the end.

Racing the setting sun however, John smiled to himself as he flew off to broaden his horizons; forever thankful for the things the twelve children on Rethink Avenue in Peach Creek had taught him. Even if he wasn't entirely sure it was the right decision to end the journey with the Eds here, I will never doubt the decision he made to start it all those years ago.


End file.
